What happens in the brain when decisions are made, according to a Harvard expert

According to science, every day a person’s brain faces an average of 35,000 decisions. The majority – 99.74% – specify them automatically, based on the data stored in memory, which saves energy.

This is only 92, about four per hour on average, are knowingly hiredaccording to a study carried out in 2018 by the consultancy firm Research on the speed of light at the request of the company Huawei.

Scientists have been investigating for years how the brain works when a person has to make a decisionbig or small, everyday or transcendental.

So far it is known which regions of the brain participate in this process and which are most active when someone has to decide from what to eat for breakfast to what to wear.

A recent scientific study may help us learn more what happens at the brain levelsince he discovered how some groups of neurons act on others.

What happens in the brain when decisions are made according to the Harvard expert

An article from the site Neuro classexplains that “at a neurobiological level, research suggests that this decision-making process connects the different regions of the central nervous system”.

The site adds that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is involved in decisions, linked to the integration of the factors involved in making a decision. “In this area, sensory information is integrated with empirical information and, in addition, connects with structures such as the amygdala or hypothalamus. Accordingly, this part evaluates the long-term consequences of a given decision“, Explain.

Another region involved in the process is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is related to the planning processesstrategies and working memory, mental flexibility, self-evaluation and outcome expectations.

Meanwhile, the amygdala is “responsible for process sensory information with stimuli considered aversive or that generate negative emotions. Likewise, he associates them previous experiencewhich influences the preliminary and initial stages of the decision-making process”.

The anterior cingulate cortex “frames what it is related to the consequences of decisions made and remains active, especially when a behavior is reinforced. Beyond that, it is involved in circumstances of uncertainty or risk.”

A recent study conducted by neuroscientists from Harvard Medical SchoolUnited States, published in the magazine Nature, provides new insights into the activity of neurons when making a decision. Although the research was conducted on mice, it might give some clues of how the human brain works.

Harvard researchers They forced the mice to choose a path enter a labyrinth and, thus, find a reward. Then, they observed the decision to go left or right they activated sequential groups of neurons and suspended the activity of neurons linked to the opposite choice.

The mice walked through a virtual T-shaped maze. Previously, a signal had indicated that the reward would be on the left or right side of the T. Using powerful microscopes, the scientists created connection maps between the same group of neurons.

In this way, they detected two types of neurons, the excitatory ones, which activated other cells, and the inhibitory ones, which suppressed other cells. The “right turn” neurons activated the inhibitory cells responsible for the “left turn” and vice versa.

According to scientists, this data could mean this When the mouse makes a decision, the neural circuit helps suppress other decisions. They suggest that this could be a mechanism that helps maintain a decision and prevent changes.